CRISIS IN VENEZUELA

“Breaking Point: Venezuela’s Horrific Food, Medicine Shortage: Part 1” & “Breaking Point: Venezuela’s Horrific Food, Medicine Shortage: Part 2” – Review

Crisis in Venezuela
Having watched several documentaries about the crisis in Venezuela, it is truly heartbreaking to find what the people of Venezuela are going through. Many are leaving the country out of desperation and some are receiving permission to do so even on expired passports because they have no choice. Other countries in South America such as Columbia have offered some Venezuelans refuge. In Venezuela, there is a major food crisis. There is few jobs available, low wages, hyperinflation. People do not have enough to eat. In Venezuela, the people who are sick and in need of medicine are not able to get the medicines at the hospital. ABC news reporting calls the medicine and food shortages “horrific”.
An ABC news report, titled “Breaking Point: Venezuela’s Horrific Food, Medicine Shortage: Part 1” (published on YouTube Feb 15, 2017) makes mention of
Hugo Chavez’s “failed socialist government”
and an interview with a citizen of Venezuela reveals “There is no quality of life here.” “Under the new President Maduro, the descent into chaos has accelerated.”
Many of the school children go to school hungry and tired. A teacher was interviewed and she stated that she herself had not eaten dinner the previous night. Her son ate but she did not. She (Vanessa) and her husband, Adolpho and son had to sell their car to survive. Adolpho is a teacher as well. While many teachers in Venezuela are missing a lot of school days as they go to wait in line for hours to find subsidized food at a cheaper price so that they can feed their own children, Vanessa and Adolpho continue to go to work consistently every day as teachers. It is a two hour commute for them. They whole family (Vanessa, Adolpho and their son) commute together, first hitchhiking part of the way and then catching a bus. Vanessa and Adolpho alternate eating on different night to make sure that their son gets to eat every day.
Some of the stories of the people in Venezuela are truly devastating and sad. According to the ABC news report, Venezuela now leads as the country with the most requests for people seeking asylum to go elsewhere. China is in second place.

The ABC news reporters feared for their safety as they were uncovering information that the government of Venezuela does not want the world at large to know about. One woman approached the camera men and told her story, saying that she lost thirty pounds in the past year simply because there is not enough food to eat. She is sorrowful and let the journalists and camera crew know that most people will not speak up because they feel like they are gagged by the government militias. The people can potentially be harmed for speaking up.
An ABC journalist reports that “In this chaos [in Venezuela], the only thing thriving is the black market”.
An interviewee that did not want his face shown on camera said that the corruption starts at the top and only a fraction of the supplies (such as food in the supermarkets and medicine in the hospitals) that are supposed to get to the people are actually getting to them.
Sometimes donations of food and medical supplies come in from places such as Miami, Florida, USA but the hospitals for example are under military control in Venezuela, with armed guards and they want to take control of the donated medical supplies at the hospitals.

Video clip:




“Breaking Point: Venezuela’s Horrific Food, Medicine Shortage: Part 2”
This ABC news broadcast started in the city of Caracas, Venezuela but the reporting crew was advised to go to the periphery, to cities such as Valencia, Venezuela to see how bad things were really getting in Venezuela. News reporter Matt Gutman was taken to Valencia, a city of 2 million people by a doctor that wanted to help shed light on what is going on at the main hospital there. Matt Gutman reported that the hospital is providing only the doctor and the bed. Anything that the patient needs need to be provided by the family of the patient including surgical gloves, gowns and other supplies.
Matt Gutman went on say that that while reporting is not a crime in Venezuela, it can be turned in to one, it can be considered one. Much of his equipment such as i-phone was confiscated and he was taken to a police station where he was intimidated and informed that the SABIN, the most notorious secret police agency in the country of Venezuela could get involved in his case. Matt Gutman speaks passionately and wants the viewers of the broadcast to be aware that when you think of the SABIN, you can readily think of the KGB or other such notorious agencies. Matt Gutman was treated as a possible US spy and was asked repeatedly if he was a part of the CIA. He asserts that right now, Venezuela is looking at the USA like the USA is the enemy in many ways and it is a “Cold War”.
Carlos Lauria, Program Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, attested when interviewed that Venezuela ranks clearly as having one of the most repressive governments in the entire Western hemisphere. He notes that in Venezuela, news coverage is censored and any news reporting on issues deemed sensitive can be considered like an attack on the government of Venezuela.


Video clip:


After I watched, “Breaking Point: Venezuela’s Horrific Food, Medicine Shortage: Part 1” & “Breaking Point: Venezuela’s Horrific Food, Medicine Shortage: Part 2”, there were links available to many other video clips on YouTube. One such video clip that I clicked on discusses the crisis of starving abandoned pet dogs in Venezuela. Sadly, an overwhelming number of people in Venezuela have had to relinquish their pets because they can no longer afford to feed them. The dog food sold in the stores is so expensive. Some people committed to volunteerism help to start shelters for these dogs but there is just so much that they can do. The dogs remained mostly emaciated, in starving condition. It is truly tragic.
According to a local veterinarian, some of the pets are even abandoned at the pet store. People arrive under the pretense that they are dropping their dogs off to have them groomed and never go back to pick the dogs up after the grooming service is complete.

[Video clip:] https://youtu.be/Y-uRYiimjdk


Here is another video clip, this one from the Associated Press, addressing the issue of abandoned pets in Venezuela.
https://youtu.be/cnRylczFKXQ




PRAYING FOR VENEZUELA.